The following passage from the book The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock perfectly captures what painting does for me, and no doubt does for others too - whether it be painting, writing, even gardening ... whatever your 'craft' happens to be:

" Craft is engaging. It results in a product. The mind works in a state of meditation in craft, almost the way we half-mediate in heavy physical exercise. There is a marvelously obsessive nature to craft that allows a person to dive down through the ocean of everyday life to a seafloor of meditative making. It is an antidote to what ails you."- Molly Peacock, from The Paper Garden